that guy

toastyglow:

toastyglow:

while watching taskmaster I do sometimes marvel at greg davies’ hosting skills. like in a way it’s his job to be mean–you know, he’s the Taskmaster, it’s part of the persona, it’s a big part of how he mines comedy out of the tasks. but I think the comedy would be far less effective if he didn’t also have 1. the self-evident awareness that it IS all a bit and 2. the self-security to stay the course of said bit when needed.

like, there have been a few times over the course of the show when you can see one of the contestants (usually another man) get their hackles up over being mocked and fire back, and greg’s response is always very centered. he doesn’t snap but he doesn’t back down either. he keeps it light and so the overall signal is like, hey, we are truly just playing here and I can take it as well as dish it out, alright?

you get the sense from this (as well as certain other moments, eg taking james acaster aside for a firm but compassionate one-on-one chat) that his experience as a teacher is really serving him in this role. he recognizes his responsibility as a host not to take things personally, especially since the host role he’s playing is by its conceit somewhat antagonistic.

come to think of it, it’s a good skill for TTRPG show GMs as well. like sometimes you’ll try a new series and the GM will be largely quite good, but you’ll see moments of insecurity where they feel a player is Challenging Them and feel the need to engage personally to assert dominance. which is an extremely understandable impulse, but when it comes down to it (regardless of whether there’s an actual problem player) it makes for a less fun show and a less engaging story.